Research Publications (Food Safety)

Mollusks have recently received increasing attention because of their unique immune systems. Mollusks such as Amphioctopus fangsiao are economically important cephalopods, and the effects of their egg-protecting behavior on the larval immune response are unclear.

Heat stress induced by global warming has damaged the well-being of aquatic animals. The skin tissue plays a crucial role as a defense barrier to protect organism, however, little is known about the effect of heat stress on fish skin, particularly in cold-water fish species. Here, we investigated the effects of mild heat stress (24°C, MS) and high heat stress (28°C, HS) on Siberian sturgeon skin using RNA-seq, histological observation, and microbial diversity analysis.

Bacteriocins are antimicrobial peptides with relevance in the modulation of human and animal microbiota that have gained interest in biomedical and biotechnological applications.

In Streptococcus mutans, we find that the histidine kinase WalK possesses the longest C-terminal tail (CTT) among all 14 TCSs, and this tail plays a key role in the interaction of WalK with its response regulator WalR. We demonstrate that the intrinsically disordered CTT is characterized by a conserved tryptophan residue surrounded by acidic amino acids.

Biofilms are known to contribute to bacterial tolerance to desiccation and survival in low moisture foods. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying biofilm formation have not been fully elucidated. This study identified some of the genes that are implicated in biofilm formation by Salmonella enterica serovar Tennessee, the “peanut butter outbreak” strain. Mini-Tn10 mutagenesis was used in the study to generate random transposon insertion libraries.

Natural materials, such as bamboo, is able to withstand the rough conditions posed by its environment, such as resistance to degradation by microorganisms, due to notable antibacterial characteristics. The methods of extraction exert a significant influence on the effectiveness of bamboo-derived antibacterial agents.

To meet the demands for more effective and ecofriendly food packaging strategies, the potential of nisin-loaded rhamnolipid functionalized nanofillers (rhamnosomes) has been explored after embedding in hydroxypropyl-methylcellulose (HPMC) and κ-carrageenan (κ-CR)-based packaging films. It was observed that intrinsically active rhamnosomes based nanofillers greatly improved the mechanical and optical properties of nano-active packaging (NAP) films.

Zoonoses and Public Health, EarlyView. Antibiotic resistance is an ongoing threat to both human and animal health. Migratory birds are a potential vector for the spread of novel pathogens and antibiotic resistance genes. To date, there has been no comprehensive study investigating the presence of antibiotic resistance (AMR) in the bacteria of Australian shorebirds or terns.

Immune cells have many efficient ways to participate in the host immunity, including phagocytosis, which is an important pathway to eliminate pathogens. Only β-integrin-mediated phagocytosis pathways have been confirmed in Apostichopus japonicus. The Src family kinases (SFKs), a class of non-receptor tyrosine kinases plays an important role in the regulation of phagocytic signals in invertebrates. However, the SFK-mediated phagocytic mechanism is largely unknown in A.

Staphylococcal enterotoxin A (SEA) is an important biotoxin, produced by Staphylococcus aureus under appropriate conditions, and often contaminates milk and dairy products.

The control of bacterial contaminants on meat is a key area of interest in the food industry. Bacteria are exposed to a variety of stresses during broiler processing which challenge bacterial structures and metabolic pathways causing death or sublethal injury. To counter these stresses, bacteria possess robust response systems that can induce shifts in the transcriptome and proteome to enable survival.

Four models (Baranyi, modified Gompertz, log-logistic and Weibull models) were applied to examine the performance of thermosonication (TS) and formic acid (FA), individually and in combination, at three temperatures (40, 50, and 60°C) for the inactivation of pathogens inoculated on persimmon. Results indicated that all nonlinear kinetic models provided a good fit to data; however, the Baranyi showed the best performance in fitting data.

by Patricia Bartsch, Christoph Kilian, Malte Hellmig, Hans-Joachim Paust, Alina Borchers, Amirrtavarshni Sivayoganathan, Leon Enk, Yu Zhao, Nikhat Shaikh, Henning Büttner, Milagros N. Wong, Victor G. Puelles, Thorsten Wiech, Richard Flavell, Tobias B. Huber, Jan-Eric Turner, Stefan Bonn, Samuel Huber, Nicola Gagliani, Hans-Willi Mittrücker, Holger Rohde, Ulf Panzer, Christian F. Krebs

In the present study, we assessed the bactericidal effect of a combination of blue light (BL) and riboflavin (Rb) and elucidated the bacterial inactivation mechanism. Higher Rb concentrations (0.005–50 μM) resulted in greater inactivation of Escherichia coli O157:H7 and Salmonella Typhimurium suspended in phosphate buffer saline (PBS).

This study assessed the survival/growth behavior of Listeria monocytogenes in 14 different types of ready-to-eat (RTE) vegetable salads stored at 4, 8, 12 and 16 °C for up to 144 h. The growth potential of L. monocytogenes in respective salad products was determined and the growth behavior over post-inoculation storage was studied.

Staphylococcus aureus (Sau) plays an important role in human infections occurring in both the community and hospital settings.

Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli and Salmonella enterica are important pathogens worldwide. Bacteriophages can be effectively used to reduce the incidence of foodborne pathogens. The host recognition systems of phages are highly specific, with the host range of a common phage being limited to the species or strain level. Here, we characterized a novel broad-host-range phage, EscoHU1, that infects several bacterial species, including E.

Matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization-time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) is routinely used for bacterial identification in clinical laboratories. Bacterial protein expression may differ according to their growth conditions, especially the culture medium composition.

Fosfomycin has gained attention as a combination therapy for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus infections. Hence, the detection of novel fosfomycin-resistance mechanisms in S. aureus is important. Here, the minimal inhibitory concentrations (MICs) of fosfomycin in CC1 methicillin-resistant S. aureus were determined. The pangenome analysis and comparative genomics were used to analyse CC1 MRSA.

Campylobacter jejuni is a leading cause of gastroenteritis that has been causally linked with development of the autoimmune peripheral neuropathy Guillain Barré Syndrome (GBS). Previously, we showed that C.

Characterization of transcriptional networks is one of the main strategies used to understand how bacteria interact with their environment.

The Staphylococcus aureus SdrG protein is glycosylated by SdgA and SdgB for protection against its degradation by the neutrophil cathepsin G. So far, there is no information about the role of Staphylococcus epidermidis SdgA or SdgB in biofilm-forming; therefore, the focus of this work was to determine the distribution and expression of the sdrG, sdgA and sdgB genes in S. epidermidis under in vitro and in vivo biofilm conditions.

Widespread multidrug-resistant (MDR) and multi-virulent diarrheagenic E. coli create several crises among human and animal populations worldwide. For this reason, we looked forward to a breakthrough with this issue and tried to highlight these emerging threats. A total of 140 diarrheagenic E. coli isolates were recovered from animal and human sources. The O26 serotype, alongside the ampicillin/cefoxitin resistance phenotype, was predominant among both human and animal isolates.

In recent years, a number of bacterial detection methods have been developed to replace time-consuming culture methods. One interesting approach is to mobilize the ability of phage tail proteins to recognize and bind to bacterial hosts. In this paper, the authors provide an overview of the current methodologies in which phage proteins play major roles in detecting pathogenic bacteria.

This study aimed to investigate the prevalence of Cronobacter sakazakii in goat milk-based infant formula (GIF) collected from Shaanxi Province, China, and reveal the molecular characterization and antibiotic resistance profile of these isolates. A total of 750 GIF samples were collected from the retail markets in 5 cities in Shaanxi Province from February 2019 to February 2021.